Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical staplers, and more particularly, to surgical staplers for laparoscopic or endoscopic use.
Background
Surgical staplers for stapling tissue during a variety of different surgical procedures are well known in the art. Such staplers typically include a knife to effect the simultaneous dissection and suturing tissue. When compared to applying manually threaded sutures, the use of staplers to suture tissue has increased the speed of the suturing process and thus, minimized patient trauma.
Surgical staplers suitable for use in open-type surgical procedures and laparoscopic or endoscopic (hereinafter “endoscopic”) surgical procedures are well known. In an endoscopic surgical procedure, a surgical stapler is inserted through a small incision in the skin or through a cannula to access a surgical site. Due to the complexity of known surgical staplers as well as the staple size requirements or known staple forming apparatus, a continued need exists for small diameter staples suitable for insertion through a small diameter cannula, e.g., a 5 mm cannula.